Being Overweight Alone Boosts Heart Risk

It's long been known that overweight and obese people have high heart disease risk. A new report in Archives of Internal Medicine shows that an unhealthy weight alone may be enough boost your risk. It also challenges a widely circulated idea about weight and health. Let's look. Bottom line first ...

In the cases of heart attack and cardiac arrest, or any other heart shocks, time sets to be the most crucial factor for the survival of the patient. Sometimes, a little knowledge regarding the immediate actions to be taken may help your near and dear ones to survive in such incidents. Keith Churchwell has extraordinarily explained the pros and cons while handling...

In the cases of heart attack and cardiac arrest, or any other heart shocks, time sets to be the most crucial factor for the survival of the patient. Sometimes, a little knowledge regarding the immediate actions to be taken may help your near and dear ones to survive in such incidents. Keith Churchwell has extraordinarily explained the pros and cons while handling patient suffering immediate heart attack or cardiac arrest. The response a person takes to treat a victim decides the probability of his/her survival. Its been my personal experience fighting to survive against a heart attack. A quick recognization of your bodily responses may increase your chances of survival. Because of having many heart problems, I was enrolled in a concierge Healthcare program from elite health. I was attacked by a severe heart attack in a party, luckily surrounded by many people. Some of the sudden changes in my body was recognized by me and anticipated immediately. I got a very severe chest pain which was almost unbearable for more than a minute. I got the suspicion that I might be having heart attack, and immediately called my physician on the phone, and explained my condition and its severity. Because of the immediate guidance, I was directed immediately to have an aspirin which I used to carry with me as prescribed by my physician. It was quite a frightening experience for me to face such a heart attack, but somehow I managed to be calm until 911 arrived. I was immediately taken to the nearest hospital, where already my physician were present and have got everything setup according to my medical history. And it was in some matter of seconds that everything was in control. A doctor, who already have the complete knowledge of the medical history and fitness of the person, extra ordinarily ameliorate your recovery process. Hence such a concierge level program from Elite health, helped me a save my life, like many others.

Thanks for your question. As a journalist and not a doctor, there's only so much help I can provide here.

But I'll point you to some good sources to help you understand your potential risk for heart disease--which of course need to be confirmed by trained medical professionals before you take any action.

First, a Body Mass Index (BMI) above 25 is considered overweight, above 30 is considered obese. BMI was developed as a research tool to study populations, not as an individual risk-assessment tool. But it can provide a rough sketch of where you stand on the overweight/obesity scale. Athletes and people with unusual body shapes often have misleading BMI stats. Having said all that: Learn how to calculate your BMI here.

On the following page you'll find information about waist-to-hip ratio, another measure sometimes used to estimate heart disease risk.

Mayo Clinic has an excellent heart risk calculator which requires more information from you but uses a robust statistical model to estimate heart disease risk a bit more personally and precisely.

I hope all that's helpful. But please go see your doctor before taking any action, or making any assumptions about your "real" heart risk. These tools are blunt instruments, not full health assessments.